


save the last dance for me

by thymeandlemons



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Miscommunication, please don't mind the cheesy title, school dances and lemon scones and general cuteness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-10-14 15:54:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17511518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thymeandlemons/pseuds/thymeandlemons
Summary: With the school dance looming, TJ tries to keep his crush on Cyrus under wraps to avoid ruining their friendship. Jonah accidentally overhearing one of TJ's many lovesick rants makes that much easier said than done.





	1. Prologue

TJ’s not worried.

Well, maybe he is _slightly_ concerned.

The thing is, him and Cyrus have a routine. They meet up in front of the water fountain by the West hallway at exactly 12:03, stop by Cyrus’ locker to drop off his books, and head to the cafeteria to line up for lunch by 12:05.

And now, it’s 12:06, and Cyrus hasn’t shown up. Cyrus _always_ shows up. He’s nothing if not punctual, and if he’s going to be late for any reason, he texts TJ to give him a heads up. He sends him multiple texts actually, always far too apologetic, no matter how many times TJ assures him he doesn’t mind waiting.

Today, there have been no texts, and TJ has spent the past 3 minutes running through disaster scenarios in his head. What if something happened and Cyrus had to leave school? What if he was snacking during his designated 11 AM snacking window, and he ate something he didn’t know he was allergic to, and had to be rushed to the hospital? What if his biology class took a field trip and they went to the field behind the equipment shack that always has a ton of crickets, and while Cyrus loves most animals, he hates crickets, and he saw them and panicked and- 

“Hey, TJ!” 

TJ’s pretty sure he gives himself a mild concussion with the speed at which he whips around, but there he is.

He quickly runs his eyes over Cyrus; face - scar free and cute as always, arms - don’t seem to be scratched or bruised, legs - no cast in sight, eyes - brown and chocolatey and bright and warm, oh so warm, and-

“TJ?” Cyrus asks with a chuckle. TJ really needs to get better at this look-at-your-crush-without-getting-distracted-by-their-face-and-staring-blankly-at-them-for-several-seconds thing.

“Hey, sorry, I just... I just drifted off for a second” he admits, hoping his cheeks aren’t as red as they feel. “You worried me, is everything okay?”

Cyrus’ eyes light up as he starts walking towards his locker, TJ quickly following after him.

“I have the wildest story to tell you” he says, pausing for dramatic effect in his trademarked Cyrus Goodman way. “You know Ben Miller, right?”

All it takes is a nod for Cyrus to continue, handing over his books for TJ to hold while he opens his locker. As TJ is trying to balance Cyrus’ books, he sneaks a peak at the Tupperware container Mrs. Goodman always packs for the two of them. He’s pretty certain he sees lemon scones, TJ’s _absolute favorite_. 

“Well, as it turns out, Ben hasn’t read any of the assigned books this year, and he has been paying Jenny Lemiski from 9th grade to write all of his papers. Can you hold this?” TJ hands him the books and takes the prized scones instead, watching Cyrus meticulously put his books back in their alphabetical order. “And this time, he was in a rush to catch the bus, so when he printed the essay, he also printed Jenny’s email about how she wants to up her price per page. He handed it to Mrs. Hussein just like that, e-mail included! _Scandal_.”

Closing his locker, Cyrus turns to TJ expecting a grand reaction. And to be fair, TJ’s not really surprised about Ben, and he has done far worse things in the past so he has no room to judge, but Cyrus looks so excited telling the story that TJ fashions his expression into a look of appropriate shock as they make their way to the cafeteria. 

“No way! What did Mrs. Hussein do?”

“She _suspended_ him! He can’t even attend _the dance_!”

 _The dance_. TJ’s usually not one for dances, but TJ’s also usually not dealing with an enormous crush on the cutest boy in the world who is very much obsessed with school dances. He has been wanting to ask Cyrus about his plans ever since the theme was announced, he just couldn’t find a way to bring it up that didn’t make it pathetically obvious that TJ wants to go with Cyrus.

And he does. He really, really, _really_ wants to go to the dance with Cyrus, but there are about a million reasons why that’s not a good idea. A million reasons why he can’t just ask Cyrus… As much as he wants to take the next step, he has _been there_ before, and it didn’t end well. So instead of acting on it, his method of coping with his crush is talking to his sister for hours upon hours about how fluffy Cyrus’ hair looked on that one particular Tuesday they went to the mall.

Still, this might be his chance. Even if he can’t ask Cyrus on a date, he can ask him on a friend-date. A group hang? Being dance friends?

“So…” he starts, his voice coming out far too squeaky to be inconspicuous. “So,” he tries again, much steadier this time, “speaking of the dance… What are your plans? Are you going with Andi and Buffy?"

“Yes and no” says Cyrus, “Buffy asked Walker to be her date, but Andi and I are going to go together. Jonah might tag along if he can’t find a date, which, let’s be honest, he probably will. Do you… Do you have a date?” 

“Don’t you think I would have told you if I had a date?” he asks with a smile. Cyrus should know by now that he’s the first person TJ goes to whenever something exciting happens in his life. Well, with the exception of crush-on-Cyrus-Goodman related developments, for obvious reasons.

He isn’t sure whether he’s imagining the blush on Cyrus’ cheeks, but his smile and the teasing spark in his eyes are definitely there. 

“So no date?”

“No date.”

“Cool. That’s cool… Would you… Would you maybe want to go with me and Andi?”

TJ’s heart may or may not be beating out of his chest, but he needs to play this cool. “Wouldn’t Andi mind? I don’t want to bother her.”

“She wouldn’t mind” assures Cyrus with a smile, “it’ll be really fun. Please?”

“I guess I could turn down my many other admirers for you” he teases, laughing when he sees Cyrus scoff. “I’d love to… Thank you, for asking me.”

“It’s a date, then” says Cyrus, and TJ would probably find the way Cyrus’ eyes widen comical if only he could manage to breathe. “I mean, it’s... I- Not that… I just-“

“Is it going to be tots and fish sticks or tots and chicken fingers?” 

It’s Betty, one of TJ’s three favorite lunch ladies, here to save the day. He looks away, pretending to weigh his lunch options as Cyrus orders, when in reality he’s just trying to calm his heartbeat.

 _It’s a date_.

Clearly, Cyrus didn’t mean it the way it sounded, if the way he backtracked was any indication, but TJ probably would have reacted the same way if he had let something like that slip. What if Cyrus does feel the same way?

“TJ, for you?”

“Oh, just tots please” he orders, watching as Betty piles on extra tots on the plate, and sneaks a few chicken fingers in there. She has seen the remnants of Cyrus’ Tater Theater on their lunch trays, so she always gives TJ extra food for Cyrus to pick at. 

He thanks Betty and turns around to follow Cyrus, smiling as he watches him stick his tongue out in concentration while looking for a table. How is TJ expected to survive _lunch_ let alone the dance?

Cyrus finds an empty table and waves him over, TJ smiling as he makes his way there.

Date or not, TJ already knows the dance is going to be one of the best nights of his life. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Preparations for the dance are underway, but a confrontation puts a wrench in everybody's plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for small mentions of homophobic bullying.

With the school dance only two weeks away, the entire student body is in preparation mode. For most, this means trying out different hairstyles, or attempting to convince their parents to not embarrass them in front of their dates on the day of the dance.

For Cyrus, and by extension TJ, this means volunteering to help with the decorations.

If you told TJ a year ago he would spend his lunch break cutting out stars and hearts from multicolored papers, he might have shoved you into a locker and called you an idiot. But that was a year ago. This is present day TJ, and present day TJ is, as his sister Amber so kindly puts it, whipped.

So here he is, sitting at a table with Cyrus and Jonah making lopsided, wonky decorations, while Andi and Buffy are on break. They’re making conversation, but it’s tense and stilted because Jonah keeps giving him these _looks,_  and TJ has no idea why because they’re supposed to have moved on from the jersey incident.

There’s no way he could have managed to piss off one of Cyrus’ friends yet again in such a short period of time, is there?

“So, Jonah” says Cyrus, while working diligently on painting a moon that looks more like a banana, “have you asked Libby to the dance, or are you coming with us?”

Jonah makes sure to glare at TJ again before starting. “I asked Libby, but she might have a family thing. She’s going to let me know tomorrow. Might tag along with you and Andi if she can’t come.”

“And TJ” Cyrus adds with a smile.

Jonah nods, apparently needing some time to process what Cyrus said, because just a few seconds later he scrunches up his brows and looks back and forth between TJ and Cyrus. “Wait, TJ?" 

“Yeah, he’s coming with us. My mom can drop us off, we figured we’d pick up TJ first-“

“You’re going to the dance with Cyrus and Andi?” asks Jonah, turning to face TJ with yet another glare.

Now that Jonah’s passive agressiveness is making the switch to outright hostility, TJ is on edge. “Yes... Is that a problem?” he asks.

“I can’t do this anymore” says Jonah, chair scraping against the hardwood floor as he stands up in dramatic fashion. “I heard you on the phone yesterday TJ.” 

Jonah pauses, looking at TJ expectantly, as if those few words should be enough to explain what has been going on.

TJ quickly runs through every phone conversation he can remember having, skimming his mind for anything he might have said that could have angered Jonah.

There was the call to Mr. Beale about the shipment of new uniforms... He spoke to his mom about having dinner at Cyrus’ place, and he called Reed to see how he was holding up. Could that be the reason Jonah is upset? But he didn’t seem to mind the Reed incident when it happened in the first place, so why would it piss him off that TJ is checking in on his friend? Unless... 

_Oh no._

Reed had asked him how things were going with Cyrus, and TJ had kind of just... Let everything out. He talked about how his feelings hadn’t lessened in the slightest, how worried he was that Cyrus’ friends didn’t like him, how terrified he was of telling Cyrus about his feelings and having Cyrus not only reject him, but start hating him...

If Jonah heard more than a few words of that conversation, TJ is screwed. He feels like he’s watching a car crash in real time as Jonah turns to face Cyrus.

“Cyrus, TJ doesn’t want to be your friend.”

 _He wants to be your boyfriend,_ TJ can almost hear him saying. He has spent months trying to keep his feelings a secret, months spent pretending being close to Cyrus doesn’t make his heart go into overdrive, and now it’s all about to come to an end. He closes his eyes and braces himself for the worst.

“He’s in love with Andi and he’s using you to get close to her!”

Wait, what?

“What?” Cyrus and TJ exclaim in sync. “That’s not true!” continues TJ, pushing his chair away as he stands up.

“I heard you TJ!” shouts Jonah, “you said you were in love with Buffy’s best friend and talked about how she would probably try to beat you up if she ever found out. You said most of all you were worried about Cyrus finding out you’ve been pretending to be friends with him this whole time because that would _definitely_ ruin your chances of dating Andi!”

“I-“ 

Crap.

Well that’s definitely one way to interpret that conversation.

What he had _actually_ talked about was how scared he was of Cyrus finding out he has been hiding his feelings this whole time, pretending he’s straight and just wants to be his friend. He had said it would ruin their friendship, let alone any possibility of a relationship. But of course Jonah heard “Buffy’s best friend”, and assumed his crush was Andi, and now TJ’s stuck.

He can’t tell Jonah he’s wrong without confessing to his crush right in front of Cyrus, and he can’t do that right now. He just _can’t._

He tried it once, when he was in 5th grade. He had a crush on his best friend Billy, and he was sure Billy felt the same way. So, gathering all of his courage, he asked Billy to go to the park with him after school, where he laid all his feelings out on the table. When Billy didn’t say a word, TJ reached out to hold his hand like they always did when they wanted to comfort each other.

Unlike all those other times, Billy pushed him away so hard that he fell off his chair.

TJ thought watching his best friend run away from him with disgust in his eyes was the worst thing to ever happen to him. That was until the next day when he walked into school to find out Billy had told everyone what happened.

The bullying got so bad that TJ was scared of going to school every day. His family ended up moving so he could switch schools, even though they really couldn’t afford to financially. They were forced to upend their entire life because TJ wanted to act on his feelings… So when he got to Jefferson, he made sure no one would dare to treat him that way again. 

It’s not that he thinks Cyrus would react the way Billy did. Cyrus is the best person TJ knows. He has the biggest heart, and he has been nothing but kind to him, even when he least deserved it. They’ve never talked about it but he doesn’t think Cyrus could be homophobic. It’s just… The odds of Cyrus returning his feelings are abysmally low, and even if Cyrus doesn’t hate him, they couldn’t recover their friendship after a confession like that. He can’t risk losing Cyrus. He just can’t.

Which leaves him with one other option. 

“It’s true” he says with a heavy heart, staring at the floor.

“This entire time?” asks Cyrus, voice barely more than a whisper.

TJ doesn’t trust his voice not to break, so he just nods.

“And the reason you wanted to go to the dance with us was because you wanted to spend time with Andi?”

He can’t have Cyrus know about his real feelings, but he can’t have him think their friendship is fake either. What he has with Cyrus… It’s the most important thing to him. He _needs_ Cyrus to know that.

“Cyrus you’re one of my best friends. This isn’t just about Andi.”

He sees Jonah open his mouth from the corner of his eyes, which as he has found out today, is never good news. “TJ just come clean. It’s better to be honest now than later.”

“I am being honest! Cyrus and I have hung out a thousand times without Andi, why would I do that if this was about her?”

“To gain Cyrus’ trust!”

“That’s not-" 

Cyrus interrupts them, standing up but still clutching on to the pens in his hands. “I’m going to go join Andi and Buffy on their break.” Swallowing, he continues, “TJ, I don’t think you should be here when I get back.”

“But Cyrus-“

“Please, just… Please.”

He watches Cyrus walk away, wracking his mind for any way of getting out of this that wouldn’t mean losing his friendship with Cyrus, but he comes up blank.

One by one he starts gathering his stuff. He can feel himself tear up but he can’t afford to cry at school, so he just focuses on watching his hands and wills the numbness he is so accustomed to take over. He wants to find Cyrus, wants to fight for their friendship, but the least he can do right now is respect Cyrus’ wishes. 

Just as he’s about to leave the classroom, Jonah’s voice interrupts him. 

“Look, dude-“

“You’re the last person I want to talk to right now so please just shut up” TJ snaps.

“I’m not the bad guy here. You’re the one who’s been using Cyrus-“ Jonah tries to cut in, but it’s all too much, and the emotions TJ has been trying to bottle up burst to the surface.

“I’m not using Cyrus, you got the conversation all wrong!” he yells, unable to keep it in now that Cyrus is out of the room. “I don’t have a crush on Andi, I have a crush on Cyrus! I’ve had a crush on Cyrus for almost a year now, and everything’s ruined because you didn’t have the guts to talk to me alone before confronting me in front of him!”

If he was any less upset, TJ might have gotten some satisfaction from the way Jonah’s expression changes as he tries to piece two and two together. 

“You what?” asks Jonah, and TJ doesn’t know if the look on his face is regret, confusion, or disgust, so he looks away to avoid dealing with it.

“I like Cyrus, Jonah” he says, voice low and honest.

“TJ… I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” 

The worst part is one glance at Jonah’s face makes it obvious that he means it. He’s genuinely sorry, and he doesn’t seem uncomfortable with this huge secret TJ just dropped on him. It hurts because none of this was malicious, and he can’t even blame Jonah when he was just looking out for Cyrus. 

“It’s too late now isn’t it?”

“Why didn’t you just tell Cyrus you liked him?” Jonah asks.

It takes a beat before TJ can answer.

“Because I’ll take him being angry with me over him hating me.”

“He wouldn’t hate you TJ” says Jonah, kind and sincere, the way he’s known to be. “You know Cyrus better than that.”

He does, he really does, but... “It would ruin our friendship either way.”

“I don’t think you’re giving him enough credit.”

If he’s being honest with himself, he can admit that he really isn’t. The rational part of his mind is telling him how good Cyrus is, how kind, and nice, and how great a friend he is. But there’s also the voice he can’t quiet telling him this is typical TJ, ruining everything good in his life. Typical TJ, who can’t get his crush’s friends to like him. Typical TJ, who ends up hurting everyone he’s close to. Typical TJ, who most definitely isn’t good enough for Cyrus Goodman.

He doesn’t say anything, or even look back at Jonah as he leaves. He goes to his locker, packs up the rest of his stuff, and heads home. He can afford to skip half a day, and today, he's going to take a shower, then go to his room and let himself wallow in self pity. 

Tomorrow, though, he’s going to talk to Amber and figure out a way to fix this, no matter what it takes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said I was going to update in a few days, and it ended up being a week, which I'm very sorry about! This ended up being sadder than I planned it to be, but I guess I was just in one of those moods.
> 
> I also really hope Jonah doesn't come across as the bad guy, because as always, he's well meaning but also very obtuse sometimes. 
> 
> Thank you so much for the love on the last chapter, and please let me know if you liked this one! Even comments just saying hi mean the world to me and really motivate me to write. Hope everyone's excited for the ep tomorrow! Cyrus/Ambi rise <3 As always, you can find me at [thymeandlemons](https://thymeandlemons.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr :)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, hello!
> 
> I'm fully aware that I have another WIP that I haven't updated in 2 months, but I swear I'll get to it! I kind of lost inspiration for it, but the idea for this verse randomly came to me and it's mostly written and I'm so excited to share it with you guys :) 
> 
> I hope you liked this first chapter/prologue, comments and kudos mean the world to me, so if you have any feedback please share <3
> 
> I'll try to upload the next chapter in 3-4 days, and in the meantime, you can find me at [thymeandlemons](https://thymeandlemons.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr :)
> 
> Thank you so, so much for reading!


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